Azeemia Foundation invited representatives from different faiths and communities to attend Adam Day: Unity in Diversity - an annual event aimed at bringing together people from different faiths.

Faith leaders from the community addressed the audience at East Ham town hall on Sunday, August 10, sitting side by side to each other, reaffirming the message of the day.

President of Azeemia Foundation, Dr Abdul Rauf, opened the event and told the Recorder, “It was a day enjoyed by all.”

He added: “I think it went really well and we had more than 200 people come along. We tried not to bore people with speeches so always kept it short and had some great entertainment too.”

The programme was one of a series run by Azeemia Foundation, a charity which promotes multi-ethnic understanding, social integrity, communal and religious tolerance.

Faith leaders from around Newham who attended the event were Father Britto Belvendran and Father Dennis Hall for Christianity, Rabbi David Hulbert for Judaism, Pandit Kumar Shastri from Ilford Hindu Centre, Reverend Hemaratana for Buddhism and Mr Tejvir Singh from Singh Sabha London East representing Sikhism.

“I think it’s a really important event because if you look around the world there’s conflict everywhere and a lot of extremism,” Abdul explained.

“What were hoping to do is get across the message that we all need to work together with each other and also recognise we all have a lot in common.